DescentBB

Ok I just got a sweet deal on a 300GB SATA drive and I want to transfer my OS drive (Onboard IDE) I'm using now to the new SATA drive. Will this work ok as a boot drive? The SATA drive has a controller card that installs into my PCI slot and I wasn't sure that WinXP, if transfered, would boot if ghosted to a new drive on a new HDD controller.

Thanks!

XP really hates booting off a different HDD controller. You will probably have to use your XP CD to do a repair install on the new drive if you are able to copy the OS over.

Oh yeah, the first problem you will have to overcome in any case would be getting both drives visible to ghost at the same time. Since you want to clone the boot disk you are not going to be able to do it with the OS running. You will have to boot from a DOS disk, so you are going to need DOS SATA drivers or you won't even be able to see the new drive. Then once you clone it XP will not be able to boot till it has the SATA drivers loaded.

This is the reason I have my system divided into 3 partitons, C: @ 6.77 GB that is JUST for the OS, D: @ 105 GB for programs, games, downloads, and E: 465 GB for mass storage.

C: and D: are partitons on a 120 GB PATA drive, convienent because it doesn't need any drivers to install XP. E: is a SATA RAID0 of two 250 GB drives that only shows up after XP installs the SATA RAID driver.

Thx for the feedback. I may just migrate my games/files/pagefile to the new disk and leave the OS drive alone.

thats what i would do. keep it simple and save on pain ltr if it falls down.

What about doing a new installation on the new drive & copying over the programs?

I returned the drive. It was a good deal, but the drivers for the SATA card were broken and it didn't come with a SATA power cord... That coupled with buyers remorse, it's gone.